The effect of mastery motivational climate approaches in children’s motor skill competence and perceived motor competence

  

MASTERY MOTIVATIONAL CLIMATE APPROACH IN MOTOR

SKILL PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN: IS THAT APPLICABLE

Ruri Famelia Padang State University

Abstract : A mastery motivational climate (MMC) is an approach that

  frequently used by motor developmentalits in their research of motor skill programs for children. The objective of this article is to review some aspects related to implementing MMC approaches for young children in real school settings. A review of nine published articles from five databases indicates that MMC significantly promote children‘s motor proficiency and perceived motor competence compared to free play activities or direct instructional approach. Also, MMC excels in emerging children enjoyment in physical education class. However, MMC approach has some issues in the program design related to time allotment and instructors, which hamper the applicability of MMC at schools. Future research is expected to provide more supporting information to help teachers in implementing motor skill program to children appropriately.

1. Introduction

  Physical activities, nowadays, have become interest for motor developmentalists related to overweight and obese cases. They believe that fundamental motor skills influence physical activities because those skills provide more opportunities for people to be engaged in any physical activities or sports. A fundamental motor skill is a ―base camp‖ of later

  Hence, a developmentally appropriate motor skill program would ensure children promote their motor skills to the mature level in harmony with their body development. Much research has been conducted to formulate the most appropriate motor skill programs. Those programs are along with children motor development. Motor developmentalists have designed many motor skill programs with different approaches. Direct instructional (a.k.a low autonomy) and mastery motivational climate (a.k.a high autonomy) are more favorable to be implemented in school settings, including in preschools, kindergarten and elementary schools. Direct instructional is a kind of traditional approach where teacher directs students during the lesson time, while mastery motivational climate is a kind of new approach that break through a traditional thought about teaching, in which students are able to direct themselves during lesson time. In general, mastery motivational instructional, also known as high autonomy, is a student-centered approach. This approach focuses on effort and improvement. This approach rooted from Ames (1992a, 1992b) work who introduced six dimensional of principles and strategy in mastery motivational climate. Those six principles are Task, Authority, Recognition, Grouping, Evaluation, and Time, which are abbreviated become TARGET (Table 1) which identify. Teachers design lesson plans for each session and create some stations. Each station administers one skill with different levels. Children group themselves and choose their station based on their willingness. Teachers can not determine the duration for children spending in one station, but teachers are supposed to give some feedback to children to improve their motor skill experience. Mastery method gives a wide opportunity for children in participating to create the rules. Teacher still have an authority to determine the behavior rules and share their bases (Pubmed, PsycInfo, SportDiscus, ERIC and Academic Search Complete). No date range was specified to include all possible years of publication specific to each database. Searches were conducted using single and combined terms. Ten articles, one of them is theoretical article, were selected by the following inclusion criteria: (1) mastery motivational, (2) motor skills, (3) young children (preschool, kindergarten and elementary schools students), (4) quantitative, qualitative and single subject, (5) Typically developing and developmental delay, and (6) original data. The articles were excluded based on these criteria: (1) children over 12 years, and (2) children with disability (autism, ADHD, Learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities). The analysis investigated articles based on the quality of studies statistically, the effect of mastery motivational climate to children motor competence and perceive motor competence, and the design of mastery motivational approach.

3. Results and Discussion

  The review of methodological approach in studies

  In term of methodological section, it can be concluded that most of articles have a quasi pre-posttest experiment and four of them with the retention test. The sample size varied from 20 children to 119 children. Also there is a study that use physical education teacher as the sample Ping, McBride, & Solmon, (2003) to investigate how teacher implemented mastery motivational climate approach to second and fourth grade elementary students. Almost all studies had researcher delivered the intervention to students, except a study of Ping, McBride, & Solmon, (2003). Furthermore, majority of participants were children with developmental delay or at risk condition (Table.1). At risk condition means children who are more likely to be failed academically because of their circumstance, such as low socioeconomic status, living in a single parent home, below average grade

  Motor competence is defined by Stodden et al. (2008) as ―the proficiency in fundamental motor skills, including locomotor and object control skills.‖ Based on those articles, MMC approach seems significantly improve children‘s motor competence (locomotor and object control skills) (Martin, Rudisill & Hastie, 2009; Robinson, 2011; Robinson & Goodway, 2009; Valentini & Rudisill, 2004) and perceived motor competence (Robinson & Goodway, 2009; Robinson, Rudisill, & Goodway, 2009; Valentini & Rudisill, 2004), even better than free play activities and direct instructional (traditional) approaches. A locomotor skill is a skill for moving a part or whole body from one point to another, such as running, skipping, leaping, galloping, jumping and hopping. An object control skill is a skill to manipulate an object, such as throwing, catching, striking, and rolling a ball. High autonomy in MMC ignites a self confidence that they are able to perform motor skills well, so it increases children‘s perceived motor competence. Moreover, MMC is proved increase children physical activity heart rate, which indicates that children are more active in MMC compared to free play activities (Parish, Rudisill, & Onge, 2007). However, one article which evaluated the implementation of MMC by physical education teacher at elementary schools claims that teacher blended MMC with direct instructional (traditional) approach in class (Ping, McBride, & Solmon, 2003). Table 1. Description of analyzed-articles

  Study Research design Group of intervention Sample type Sample size Intervention Intervention dose (children) Instructors

Martin, Rudisill, & quasi MMC group Developmental 64 (30 boys, 34 Researchers 6 weeks, 5x/week, 30

Hastie.(2009) experimental DI group delay girls), age 5 yrs min/session. design,pre-post. Parish, Rudisill, &St. pretest-posttest

  1. MMC Not explained 21 (11 boys, 10 Researcher 3 week, 6 session of Onge, (2007). randomized

  2. Free Play girls), age 2-3 yrs MMC and 6 free play, selection.

  30 min/session. Ping, McBride, & Mix method,

  1. MMC Teacher of 10 elementary PE Teacher 4 lessons per teacher Solmon, (2003). pretest-postest No comparison elementary teacher (5 males school and 5 females) of 2nd and 4th grade

  Robinson. (2011). quasi

  1. MMC At risk 40 (24 boys, 16 researcher 9 weeks, 18 sessions, experimental

  2. DI girls), age 4-5 yrs 30 mins/session design, pre-post,

  3. Control retention test Robinson, & Goodway. quasi

  1. MMC At risk 117 (63 boys, 54 researcher 9 weeks, 18 sessions, (2009). experimental

  2. DI girls), age 4 yrs 30 min/session. design, pre, post,

  3. Control retention.

  9 wee Robinson, Rudisill, & pretest-posttest

  1. MMC At risk 117 (63 boys, 54 researcher ks, 18 sessions, 30 Goodway. (2009). randomized

  2. DI girls), age 4-5 yrs min/session. comparison group

  3. Control design, retention test. Theeboom, & De.(1995). pretest-posttest

  1. MMC Not explained 119 (73 boys, 46 Researcher 6 week, every day, 40 randomized

  2. DI girls) age 8-12 yrs min/session. assignment Valentini, & Rudisill. quasi-

  1. MMC Developmental 106 (45 boys, 61 Researchers 12-weeks, 24, 35 min (2004). experimental

  2. DI delay girls), age 5-6 yrs session, 6 month design pre-post- retention. retention Wall, Rudisill, & Gladden. pretest-posttest

1. MMC At risk 22 (10 boys, 12 Researchers One day, 30 min.

  (2009). randomized

  2. Free play girls) age 2.2-4 selection yrs Moreover, some studies compared direct instructional approach to mastery motivational approach. To demonstrate, Valentini &Rudisill (2004) implemented both direct instructional and mastery motivational approach to compare their hypotheses. They found that mastery motivational climate significantly improve children‘s locomotor skills compared to direct instructional approach, w hile both approaches improve children‘s object control with no significant different. The strength of this study is conducting a retention test six months after intervention and argued that children who received mastery motivational approach could retain their fundamental motor skills significantly higher than children in direct instructional approach.

  

Mastery motivational climate approaches in relation with children’s

perceived motor competence

  Experts have come up with the hypotheses that the feeling of being free in choosing any stations in mastery motivational approach contributes to children‘s motor skill performance. High autonomy ignites a self confidence that they are able to perform motor skills well. This feeling is known as perceive motor competence, which is defined as self perception of competence for a given task (Gallahue, Ozmun, & Goodway, 2012).

  Valentini, & Rudisill (2004) also evaluated children perceived motor competence for both approaches and concluded that mastery motivational climate improved children‘s perceived motor competence significantly higher than direct instructional approach. Also this perceived motor competence in mastery motivational approach retains up to six month. They believed that by giving high autonomy to children to choose what they want to do and providing feedback to them would built a confidence of their ability in practicing motor skills and feel pleased to keep exercising

  Nevertheless, MMC approach has weaknesses in determining time allotment for each motor skill. High autonomy lets children to decide what station they choose and the length of time they spend their time to practice in that station. What researchers could design is what kind of skills that they want to implement, how they plan their activities in each session and how long each session is. The activity of children during practice time can not be tracked. This approach raises the difficulties in repetition of program by other researchers or teachers. It would be very likely that the results that Martin, Rudisill and Hastie (2009) and Valentini and Rudisill (2004) found were specific only for their participants or the condition and atmosphere in the place where the program was implemented. Moreover, every individual has different characteristics and self-motivation. Both aspects would contribute to variation in result for different children population. Future research would consider the learning process during mastery motivational approach. Recording every session would help to find out what factors get involved among children in their practice, which is predicted as a significant factor that distinguish mastery motivational approach with direct instructional. Moreover, it would be a good method to track of time allotment in mastery motivational approach. Besides that, future research should involve teachers as instructors of the program after receiving training about motor development and motor learning. It is expected would be able to address issue about the replicability and generalization of research findings to real school settings.

  Overall, even though MMC promises significant improvement in some aspects of movement in children, some data is still needed to support its applicability in the real settings at school. Today, if teachers implement MMC approach at school now, it will be more likely that the results would vary with what some researchers have found. Future research is expected

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